Gwyneth Paltrow’s infamous wellness empire Goop is expanding its visionary mission of selling overpriced hemorrhoid creams to insecure women: Now the scam will target men, too. Gender equity!

World-renowned for hawking $100 ‘enriching’ face oils and $66 jade eggs that give your vagina Harry Potter powers, Goop has bravely debuted a podcast called ‘Goopfellas’ in the hopes of seducing men to embrace the prohibitively expensive, pseudo-cult Goop lifestyle. The podcast, which will be complemented by a newsletter and a men’s clothing line, will focus on a variety of topics, including mental health, self-care, toxic and modern masculinity, relationships, health and food, and probably which extremely affordable Goop products you should purchase in order to remedy all which ails you.

The Goopfellas podcast is designed to be a “proverbial dinner table,” Dr. Will Cole, Goopfellas podcast co-host, told fashion site Glossy. “We envisioned it as a conversation that isn’t a formal interview but rather a riffing and discussion,” he said. “Men are more private, so this podcast and other Goop initiatives are designed to help them understand that they can get in on the wellness conversation.”

Orifice eggs sold separately, of course.

Founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Goop has come under scrutiny from consumer watchdogs and the US government for its hilariously false marketing claims. For example, last year the company was fined $145,000 after it was determined that Paltrow’s vagina eggs didn’t actually “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control” as advertised.

The company was similarly humiliated a year earlier, when NASA called shenanigans on a line of “healing stickers” allegedly made of the “same conductive carbon material” that the US space agency uses to “monitor an astronaut’s vitals.”

Mark Shelhamer, a former chief scientist at NASA’s human research division, called the claims “a load of BS,” adding that even if NASA used this material it would be for adding strength to the suit and not for monitoring vital signs.

Despite these party-pooping realities, Goop is still valued at $250 million, proving that there are at least dozens of people on earth who will spend $72 on a scented candle. Some of them might even be men. 

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The Irish internet privacy watchdog is investigating whether Google’s collection and use of personal data on its Ad Exchange platform violates EU laws, potentially putting the tech giant on the hook for millions of euros in fines.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) opened a probe into the search behemoth’s compliance with the sweeping data protection regulations passed into law across the EU almost exactly a year ago. The inquiry concerns Google’s massive Ad Exchange platform, which operates real-time online auctions in which highly-sensitive information about users is gleaned from their browsing history and traded by companies which use it to create behavioral profiles for ad targeting.

At issue is how Google retains personal data, its practices regarding transparency and minimization of data collected, and how that data is processed. Ad Exchange auctions can involve hundreds of third parties haggling over users’ private data, attaching behavioral ‘tags’ to their traffic without their knowledge – an operation which seems to run afoul of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirement that companies obtain explicit consent before dealing in sensitive information.

The DPC could fine Google up to 4 percent of its global revenues or €20 million, whichever is higher, if the company is found to be in violation of GDPR. It could also impose “corrective measures” on the California-based company. As Google’s European HQ is in Ireland, the DPC’s decision could serve as a blueprint for other European data regulators wishing to levy their own fines. French data regulator CNIL has had something of a head start, fining Google €50 million for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding ads personalization” in January.

The Irish investigation is based on a complaint filed by digital rights organizations, including the no-track browser Brave, last fall. Google was singled out for particular scrutiny in that complaint owing to the invasive nature of its ad-targeting categories – markers such as “AIDS & HIV,” “male impotence,” and “substance abuse” are subject to special protection under GDPR. Another of Google’s ad-targeting categories, ironically, is “privacy issues.”

The US is quietly upgrading its Aegis Ashore missile defense site in Romania, possibly to allow it to launch offensive Tomahawk cruise missiles, military analyst Mikhail Khodarenok has learned.

This could be the first time in decades Tomahawks return to Europe. 

A low-key modernization effort is taking place at Deveselu, where Aegis Ashore is stationed in Romania. Once it’s complete, there’s a high probability of Tomahawk cruise missiles being delivered to the site, according to RT’s military analyst Mikhail Khodarenok.

According to Khodarenok, the Pentagon is sending two guided-missile destroyers equipped with the Aegis combat system with SM-3 missile interceptors aboard and deploying Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to Romania. The reinforcement of the base’s defenses may suggest that the US military want the THAADs and the ship-based missiles to take over the defensive functions and free up the land-based site for something else, the analyst believes.

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“Thus, the Deveselu site now can provide for the deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles in Europe for the first time since the end of the cold war.”

The Aegis Ashore upgrades in Romania started just a few months after the Trump administration announced the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The 1987 agreement banned the US and Russia (then USSR) from having ground-based missiles with a range between 500km and 5,500km.

The Tomahawks, nuclear-capable missiles with a range of up to 2,500km, saw action during two Iraq campaigns and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. They were among the hardware covered by the INF treaty, and the US’ hands aren’t tied anymore now that Washington has quit it.

Aegis Ashore is a land-based variation of an anti-missile system installed on the US warships. It’s armed with 24 interceptor missiles, which are fired by the Mark 41 vertical launching system. It can use different types of ammunition, but was initially designed with Tomahawks in mind.

Khodarenok is convinced that the modernization of the Deveselu site poses a real threat to Russia which should not go unanswered and Moscow has a wide range of counter-measures available.

One option he names is ramping up the Russian military presence in Crimea, deploying supersonic MiG-31BM jets able to carry state-of-the-art Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. The analyst believes the secretive weapon gives Russia an edge over potential adversaries, as there are no known defenses against it yet.

Another option Khodarenok believes worth considering is the deployment of seaborne Kalibr missile systems off the Crimean shores, or stationing of Tu-22M3M long-range bombers in the peninsula.

Moscow has long been opposed to the US missile shield being erected close to its borders, arguing that it undermines security in Eastern Europe. Russia believes those compounds could easily be converted into launch pads for offensive missiles.

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As the last season of the hit series Game of Thrones continues to get flak online, one Russian artist has come up with a bold plan to reshoot the fantasy epic… starring beloved Soviet Russian cartoon characters instead of actors.

Whether you like the finale or not, the Game of Thrones is now officially over. It’s not clear when the original books by George R.R. Martin are going to be finished, while the upcoming HBO prequels are to be set in a different era entirely, and the notorious petition to re-film the controversial last season of the show with better writing seems to be little more than a cry in the depths.

But fear not, as creative geeks online have already come up with a thousand ways to save the show – at least in someone’s imagination. For one, a Russian artist nicknamed Prokky has proposed to shoot a remake of the HBO fantasy drama using the characters from Soviet animation classics.

READ MORE: GoT petition to remake season 8 with ‘competent writers’ hits 1 million signatures

In his sketches for the series remake, he dubbed “Game of Toons,” Prokky portrayed the Hound and Arya Stark as the wolf and the hare from “Well, Just You Wait!” – a Soviet take on “Tom & Jerry.”

The cute big-eared character Cheburashka, which already enjoys a large fandom in Japan, would star as the mother of dragons, Daenerys Targaryen. Cheburashka’s friend, Gena the Crocodile, got a bit of a boost to become the fire-spitting Drogon.

Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet tried on the black armor of the Night’s Watch to turn into Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow. The resemblance is striking.

Tyrion Lannister gained the superpower he always needed, as propeller-sporting, roof-dwelling hero Karlsson-on-the-Roof was picked for the role, switching his addiction from jam to wine in the process. A lot more bizarre was the transformation of Karlsson’s underage pal into the villainous young king Joffrey Baratheon.

While the lead characters of the “Princess and the Cannibal” were uncannily fitting for Sansa Stark and her sadist husband, Ramsay Bolton.

Baldheaded Varys was portrayed as Vodyanoy, a mystical water creature, who sang a sad song about a lack of friends in a 1979 cartoon. Sure everybody knows that Varys was a merman.

The ex-King of Westeros, Robert Baratheon, grew very fat in his later years, so an even fatter cat from “The Return of the Prodigal Parrot” was a perfect match for him.

As for the Night King and his Army of the Dead, Prokky compared them to the flamboyant hockey teams from the 1964 masterpiece “Shaibu! Shaibu!”

With all those characters in one cast, this definitely seems like a must-watch show. Shall we launch a petition to make it happen?

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US Central Command has asked the Pentagon to send up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East, citing threat from Iran even as the Trump administration boasted about having successfully ‘deterred’ Tehran already.

A CENTCOM request for 5,000 troops was reported by Reuters on Wednesday, citing two anonymous US officials. The reinforcements would be “defensive in nature,” one of the officials reportedly said.

AP reported soon thereafter that the Pentagon will present plans to send “up to 10,000 troops” to the Middle East, also citing unnamed officials.

Washington has already sent a carrier strike group, a number of B-52 strategic bombers, and a unit of Patriot missile defense batteries to the region, citing intelligence warnings of an “imminent threat” by Iran. Many US diplomats and their families were evacuated from the neighboring Iraq as well.

On Tuesday, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters that the deployments have had the desired effect, deterring the Iranian attack and putting Tehran’s plans “on hold.”

The newest reported troop request is but a fraction of the 120,000 soldiers that Shanahan reportedly discussed deploying to the Middle East with President Donald Trump last week – at least according to a New York Times story, which also relied on anonymous sources.

Trump himself quickly dismissed the report as “fake news.”

“Would I do that? Absolutely, but we have not planned for that,” Trump told reporters on May 14. “Hopefully, we’re not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that.”

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A French reporter who exposed cronyism in President Emmanuel Macron’s administration has been summoned for questioning by domestic intelligence, the fifth journalist subjected to the chilling treatment within a month.

Le Monde journalist Ariane Chemin has been directed to appear before the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) next week, according to the paper’s editorial director. Chemin was the first to write about Alexandre Benalla, a security aide and member of President Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle who was caught on film beating a protester while impersonating a policeman. The story opened a window into extensive corruption within the Macron government, leading to several more stories and multiple officials resigning in disgrace, turning what has become known as the “Benalla affair” into a millstone around Macron’s neck.

Chemin is accused of “committing or attempting to commit the offense of revealing or disclosing, by any means, any information that could lead, directly or indirectly, to the identification of a person as a member of special forces” and could face jail time, according to the Washington Post, which was given a copy of the police summons. The law, adopted in April 2016 during the “state of emergency” declared following a series of terrorist attacks in 2015, has never before been used against a journalist.

A February story about a contract for “protection services” Benalla allegedly negotiated between former French air force officer Chokri Wakrim and a Russian tycoon suspected of ties to organized crime triggered the backlash against Chemin, according to Le Monde editorial director Luc Bronner. A corruption probe has been opened against Wakrim, while his wife was forced to resign as head of security for the Prime Minister.
“It’s a very bad climate for the press,” Chemin told the Washington Post, adding that in her 24 years in journalism, “this is the first time the press is being treated in such a way.”

The summons comes less than a month after three journalists from investigative news site Disclose were called into DGSI over a story exposing how France knowingly sold weapons, tanks, and ships to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the purpose of waging war in Yemen, in violation of a 2014 arms treaty. The story was based on a classified Directorate of Military Intelligence briefing and the journalists were threatened with up to five years in jail under a 2009 law prohibiting “attacks on national defense secrets” for merely handling the classified document without authorization. On Wednesday, Disclose revealed a fourth journalist had been summoned by DGSI.

Macron’s government has cracked down hard on journalists exposing corruption within its ranks, raiding the offices of Mediapart, another outlet that reported on the Benalla affair, in February without a warrant. In 2018, a law was passed allowing the government to shut down any news agency deemed to be under “foreign influence” four months before an election.

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A commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said that the Persian Gulf is “under the full control” of Iran’s military and US ships are “not a concern,” even as the US claimed victory in the Iran standoff.

“Over the years, our forces have completely surrounded the Persian Gulf, so that they (the Americans) need our permission to move in this area,” Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.

Washington would likely dispute Fadavi’s claim that Iran has the Lincoln – a 100,000 ton behemoth carrying 90 aircraft and multiple batteries of missiles – under control, but the United States has made similar claims itself during the recent standoff.

Fresh from threatening the “official end of Iran” on Sunday, Trump seemed to reverse course on Monday, declaring there was “no indication that anything is happening or will happen,” presumably pleasing the almost two-thirds of Americans who oppose preemptive strikes on Iran, and sorely disappointing hawkish adviser John Bolton.

Washington swiftly got to work spinning the statement, with acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan crediting the carrier deployment with scaring the Iranians into compliance, a statement remarkably similar to Fadavi’s boastful claim.

“Our prudent response, I think, has given the Iranians time to recalculate,” Shanahan said on Tuesday.

Tehran has parried Washington’s threats with pronouncements of its own. IRGC aerospace head Amirali Hajideh said last week that the presence of US ships in the region presented “opportunities” for Iran to test its missiles. Days earlier, Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad warned Washington that a single missile from Iran could easily sink its “billion dollar fleet.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader dismissed the threat of open conflict between Iran and the US.

“There won’t be any war,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week, even as the US announced its military build-up. “We don’t seek a war, and they don’t either,” he added, insisting that the Americans are well aware that a military confrontation with Iran is “not in their interests.”

Despite the saber-rattling, the precise nature of the “credible threats” cited by Washington officials was never revealed.

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Mainstream news outlets have eagerly reported on a study by the Avaaz campaign group, claiming far-right disinformation groups have been spreading fake news in the lead up to EU elections — but is the group all that it seems?

The Avaaz network bills itself as social action group bringing “people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere” and it’s latest study claims that more than 500 suspicious groups and Facebook pages are operating across major EU countries and spreading election disinformation to boost far-right and anti-EU parties ahead of crucial parliamentary elections.

The disinformation networks, Avaaz claimed, are even more popular than the pages belonging to official right-wing and anti-establishment groups and parties — and that they have been engaged in everything from sharing white supremacist content to Holocaust denial.

Outlets from the Washington Post in the US to the Guardian in the UK have reported on the study, which was released just days before Europeans go to the polls — but reading the reports gives a clear impression that Avaaz is a non-partisan and independent group, when the reality is much different. Avaaz is not simply studying these elections, it is actively campaigning.

While Avaaz claims it accepts no money from governments or corporations, it is tied to other social action groups Res Publica and Moveon.org (which has been partly funded by left-wing Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros) — and its co-founders, Ricken Patel and Tom Perriello, have a history of supporting a US imperialist agenda. Patel has previously worked for the US State Department and Amnesty International, while Perriello is a former US congressman who voted in favor of continuing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soros was also a major campaign contributor to Perriello. Is this really the kind of political action group that should be cited by the media without proper context?

Independent journalists have had suspicions about Avaaz’s own activity for years, noting its strong pro-establishment and globalist leanings, which have even translated into outward support for US regime change wars around the world. When the group is not pushing for no-fly zones in Libya and Syria, or agitating for regime change in Venezuela and Iran, it is actively supporting centrist, neoliberal political figures across the EU and US. Patel told the EUobserver last year that the “majority” of people across Europe “stand with” German Chancellor Angela Merkel and has also actively supported French President Emmanuel Macron with online videos and petitions.

While Avaaz is seemingly very concerned with the plight of citizens in places like Venezuela and Iran (it was also actively involved in promoting Iran’s ‘Green Revolution’ in 2009), it appears to be less concerned with the lives of ordinary Europeans. The group has targeted the anti-Macron Yellow Vest movement in France and framed the protesters easy targets for spreading “fake news” — and to put the icing on the cake, blamed the swift spread of this alleged fake news on Russia, another of Avaaz’s favorite targets.

Indeed, unsurprisingly, media reporting on so-called election meddling ahead of EU elections has taken on an anti-Russia hue, with many suggesting that disinformation groups are simply ‘copying Russian tactics’ from the 2016 US election, when the Democratic Party claimed Russian disinformation campaigns were a major factor in Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump — a claim for which there remains exactly zero evidence.

One of these reports on the alleged copycat tactics quotes Ben Nimmo, a former NATO press officer, cited with regularity by mainstream journalists as though he is an impartial source. Like clockwork, Nimmo popped up ahead of the EU elections to claim that “domestic actors” across Europe are now simply “doing what the Russians had already been doing” — because it’s easier to blame Russia for social discord in Europe than failed leadership and unpopular policies.

Once again, it appears that many of the groups claiming to help people recognize fake news online are some of the biggest and sneakiest purveyors of disinformation themselves — and they are frequently promoted by mainstream news outlets — if they are selling the correct narrative, that is.

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Mainstream media continue to quote the founders of cybersecurity firm New Knowledge as credible experts on Russian disinformation tactics, even after the firm was exposed by the New York Times for having run its own disinformation campaign during a 2017 Alabama senate race. The New Knowledge crowd set up fake Russian social media accounts to ‘support’ one candidate and then worked to publicly brand him as Moscow’s pick.

By not even mentioning Avaaz’s own sketchy links, and very clear political leanings, Western news reports citing its studies as completely credible and independent are simply engaging in their own kind of disinformation.

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The United Nations has ordered Britain to give up sovereignty over a series of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, home to a key military base. The decision was approved by a supermajority of member states.

Wednesday’s resolution called on the UK to cede control of the Chagos Islands, which it said were unlawfully annexed from the Republic of Mauritius, then a British colony, in 1965. The General Assembly gave Britain six months to leave.

An extended legal battle over the territory culminated in a ruling last February in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN body for inter-state disputes. The court ordered Britain to leave Chagos “as rapidly as possible,” but the decision was ignored, prompting Mauritius to turn to the General Assembly for another vote.

The latest resolution was adopted with the overwhelming support of 116 countries, with just four nations joining Britain and the United States in opposition. Seventy-one states either abstained or didn’t cast a vote.

Britain granted Mauritius independence in 1968, but held onto the Chagos archipelago. Between 1967 and 1973, the UK expelled the majority of the Chagos population to make way for a massive military complex on the atoll of Diego Garcia, which is today leased out to the United States.

American and British officials were not pleased with the decision.

“The United Kingdom is disappointed by the results in the General Assembly today,” British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce said in a statement, arguing that the number of abstentions “underscores the fact that states have concerns about the precedent that this resolution is setting.”

Pierce’s American colleague Jonathan Cohen responded in much the same way, saying the island’s “status as a UK territory is essential to … our shared security interests.”

However, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said he was ready to offer the US and UK unhindered access to Diego Garcia, meaning that the two powers are unlikely to give up the base.

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UK Chagos Support, an advocacy group, was somewhat critical of the move, insisting that “no decisions over the future of the islands should be taken without input from the Chagossian [people] themselves.”

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A month after deadly terror attacks in Sri Lanka killed over 250 Christians celebrating Easter, investigators have revealed that the bombs used in the attack show the attackers had direct contact with Islamic State terrorists.

The backpack bombs detonated in three churches and three hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21 were constructed by local jihadists from the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group, but utilized the expertise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, investigators told AFP.

The link was established after the probe found triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, present at the attack sites. Due to its extreme volatility, IS militants call the explosive, which can be produced from readily available ingredients, the “Mother of Satan.”

The substance was used in several attacks claimed by IS, including the 2015 bombings in Paris and the 2017 attack in Brussels.

While it is evident that IS played a role in preparing the bomb for the attack in Sri Lanka, investigators still want to know just how deep the ties go. The Sri Lankan who led the Easter attacks, Zahran Hashim, traveled to India before becoming a suicide bomber. He also appeared in the IS video that claimed responsibility for the bloodshed.

The probe has also confirmed that 220 pounds of raw TATP were seized in January, indicating that the government had even more warning signs than they previously let on. Sri Lankan security agencies had been warned by Indian and US intelligence about possible terrorist acts against churches, but apparently failed to act on the information.

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